The digital world is present in all areas of healthcare now. Most
healthcare professionals know this and ensure they are present there. For, they
certainly don’t want their patients not to avail of all the benefits it offers.
There are certainly benefits but one does need to understand it completely so
that all aspects are taken care of. For, this is a sacrosanct relationship that
cannot be ruined due to wrong application of technology. On the other hand, the
right application could and does offer a lot of benefits to all the
stakeholders. So, it does help to spend time in seeing all aspects.
The digital world is now very pertinent to all of us today. We are now
experiencing a paradigm shift from thinking in terms of closed systems to
thinking in terms of open networks. We live in a “networked” world that is
characterized by networks both online and offline. Networks are
non-hierarchical, inclusive, connected, complex, and open. They are constructed
out of both humans and nonhumans. They are now a kind of blueprint for the way
in which society is being organized. This includes healthcare that is part of
all of us.
Healthcare is no longer something that is confidential and takes place
in the intimacy and confines of the doctor-patient relationship. This is spread
quietly maybe with a thread of privacy all over technical platforms.
Today, health care is distributed throughout a complex network of both
human and nonhuman actors. The other new entrants are databases, hospital
information systems, digital health records, electronic health cards, online
patient communities, health related apps, smart homes with ambient assisted
living technologies and so on. Networks operate most efficiently when they
conform to certain norms.
There are connectivity, flow of information, communication, participation, transparency, and authenticity. Here,
authenticity is most important and relevant, both in the interest of the doctor
and patient, for this is how one grows in knowledge and experience. While
sitting at home, patients may even now what to do next because of the
information that is passed on to them. These indeed is the new era that we all
need to embrace and make optimum use of.
The new digital world guide the both the doctor and patient. This is due
to the fact that they play a major role in the production and uses of health
related information and knowledge. They condition how health related knowledge
can create value both with regard to efficiency and quality of care.Today’s healthcare
consumers are very different than the healthcare consumers of the past. They
are usually more aware of the trends and diagnosis. As patients are often doing
extensive research online, which means they are more particular about the
services they receive. This has increased the need for an efficient healthcare
digital marketing strategy. This needs to help medical practices and
organizations find their customers via digital and social media to generate
more business online. If earlier is was word of mouth, today the same world
spreads rapidly through the internet. We cannot ignore this trend.
Now, about 47 percent of internet users are searching online for
information on treatment options and about healthcare providers. This has been
stated by Pew Research. It's time
that healthcare providers take optimal measures to make use of the digital
domain in the most optimum manner. For, the digital world has arrived and one
cannot ignore it. If we do, we shall become irrelevant and obsolete.
Digital marketing for healthcare has increased the loyalty of
current patients and educates prospective patients about their healthcare
options. In all cases of business, it has
always been about connecting with your audience in the right place at
the right time. And today, the right place is on the internet and the right
time is right now.
For
this, we definitely need to understand healthcare and its new avatar in the
digital marketing trends.Let us consider the following statistics from PewResearch. One third of adults in the United States say they have gone
online to research medical conditions. Of everyone in the country who uses the internet about 72
percent say they have looked online for health related information. These could
be health issues or medical procedures,Nearly half of all internet users search for information about
physicians online.Nearly forty percent of all internet users search for
information about hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers.
These
trends aren't likely to change anytime soon, so if you want to connect with
people in the right place at the right time (which you do), you're going to
want to be active in healthcare digital marketing. Till today, Twitter and
Facebook are incredibly effective ways to connect with patients, both current
and prospective. Other than this, social messaging apps such as Snapchat,
Messenger and WhatsApp are emerging as effective tools for reaching out to
one’s audience. Delivering the content in the format that our audience wants is
also incredibly important. That might explain the explosion of videos and even
podcasts as a digital marketing tool, especially in health care . This is real fact. According to data gathered
by Insivia online video will account for nearly 75
percent of all online traffic this year, 55 percent of people watch videos
online every day, and using the word "video" in an email subject line
increases open rates by nearly 20 percent.
Podcasts
are another area worth exploring:
Over a million (112) Americans listened to a podcast last year.Around three quarters (67) million people in the United States
listen to podcasts monthlyPodcast listeners are growing in numbers. This again is likely only to increase as the number of
people going digital are only increasing.
In Sum
We can indeed see the importance of the digital world
everywhere. As health is a necessity for all of us, it is indeed relevant here
too. We are certain it is here to stay and only increase with time.
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